Book 3. The Long Journey. Chapter 212. Cultivation Chambers.

Having indulged in the pleasant sensation within his body for a few moments, Laien soon snapped out of his daze and stopped beside Yin. Having arrived at the outer section of the ellipsoidal underground complex, Laien glanced to the left and right, then looked to the front, just like Yin had done a few seconds ago. Within this dimly-lit, tunnel-like pathway, the two of them were greeted by three sets of entrances, each of them accompanied by a perfectly round stone on a pedestal.

The gate-like door in front of them was the biggest and since it was the closest, the two of them could clearly see the thousands of small runes that were engraved on its metallic surface. According to the area’s layout, this set of extremely sturdy, rune-reinforced doors led to the middle-sized room. As for the door that was roughly two hundred meters to the left, it appeared like a much smaller copy of the gate-like metallic entrance and was the size of a normal door to a luxurious building. Lastly, the entrance that was two hundred meters to the right appeared to be made of stone instead of metal. Moreover, it was shaped circularly, thus giving a cave-like feeling.

“Let’s see,” Yin said with a slight smile and approached the nearby pedestal. Even without the information which Laien had just recalled and shared with him, he wouldn’t have had trouble figuring out what the object in front of him was. After all, he had seen many similar things back in the Forbidden Lands, when he had still been a little kid. So, he placed his hand on the stone and sent his aura alongside a bit of Qi into it, then allowed the information to flow into his soul and mind.

“…”

“…”

“Wow.” A good moment later, Laien and Yin muttered the same word in their daze. To think that the Holy Union was willing to go this far to raise their top-level geniuses! Despite all the wealth and experience the two of them had accumulated, they were still shocked by the ridiculous expenditure involved in operating the mid-sized room in front of them. And, that was not to mention the remaining six medium-sized and fourteen small-sized rooms, which, almost certainly, operated in the same way. For any country to be willing to burn money like that… no, this was even worse than burning money. After all, no sane person would consider using high-grade and top-grade elemental stones to reproduce the effects of naturally occurring elemental phenomena!

Furthermore, even if someone so insane existed, the overwhelming majority of practitioners wouldn’t be able to obtain any benefits from cultivating in such an environment. If anything, they would be lucky if they were able to escape those ‘elemental tombs’ with their lives and without sustaining lasting damage to their cultivation bases. There was a good reason as to why the more powerful elemental stones were invaluable strategic resources of any country’s military, and that was because the energy they contained was extremely wild and unstable. Thus, even if this dangerous energy were to be transformed into a milder form by various means, the potential benefits from such an undertaking would be grossly inadequate to its massive costs.

“They are crazy,” Laien commented with a grin on his face. No matter how talented people the Holy Union found or raised, those cultivation chambers were taking it more than one or two steps too far. Unless Azuresky and Emeric were hiding some absolute monsters, the main goal of those cultivation chambers was likely to be icing on the cake. Very overpriced icing on a cake decorated with diamonds and made of gold, but icing nonetheless. To the small minority of those who would prove capable of becoming Heaven’s Order Students, it would be a small edge that they would have over the geniuses from other countries. But, most importantly, it would cause them to feel indebted to Academy City and the Holy Union, and make it less likely for them to defect in the future.

“But it’s good for us,” Yin said happily. He hadn’t expected Academy City to have produced weakened versions of Danger Zones that were scattered in various places all across the Starlight Continent, but those artificial constructs would indeed be very useful to the two of them. “We happened upon our ‘fortunate encounter’ rather easily this time, didn’t we?” he mentioned with a smile. For him, the environment filled with powerful lightning would serve as good preparation for his breakthrough to the Realm of Heroes, which he was planning to undergo in the lightning-element Danger Zone that was relatively close to the Eclipse Academy. For Laien, with his Absolute Water Spiritual Domain, it should serve as an effective boost to cultivation speed.

“We will see,” Laien said, his voice containing a fair bit of anticipation. “If training here proves useful, then once we’re in the Realm of Heroes, we can seek out the Danger Zones to cultivate within them, too,” he mentioned with a smile. At his current level, with how powerful and pure his spiritual energy was, the benefits of cultivating near sources of water which he had enjoyed back in the day had long since become negligible, if not non-existent. Unless the environment he cultivated in was filled with extremely powerful and pure water-element natural energy, he wouldn’t be able to claim any advantages from it. Moreover, if the water-element energy was inadequate, then it could dilute and weaken his reservoir of spiritual energy, making it weaker instead of stronger.

“We definitely can,” Yin supported. Laien knew it as well as he did; the only reason he hadn’t suggested to seek out water-element Danger Zones to alleviate Laien’s slower cultivation speed was that those places were simply too dangerous. Even he, with his magical beast physique and the protection of Heavenly Lightning, only dared to enter a Danger Zone to advance into the Realm of Heroes. If he were to try to cultivate in such a place before entering the next major realm, he feared that the overbearing energy, while allowing his cultivation to rise quickly, would also serve to destroy his foundations and dilute his strength. As for those cultivation chambers, creating something like that wasn’t realistic in a short period of time, so until today, the option was implausible.

“Let’s get going,” Laien said with a smile. “We can try those rooms out later. We might as well go and collect some elemental stones from the Training Quarters later in the day, too,” he added, going out of his way to vocalize his thoughts despite it being unnecessary. With their Spiritual Link growing stronger by the day, they would soon never have to talk again or even form any coherent thoughts as long as they were close to each other. However, both of them were fond of speaking normally, so just like they had agreed to do some time ago, they didn’t discard the pleasure of oral conversations.

“Might as well,” Yin agreed straightforwardly. He and Laien exchanged a look, then broke into a run alongside the outer tunnel of the training area. They had used up some time already, so they would have to hurry if they wanted to check out the elemental assignments of all the rooms and return in time. Of course, they could achieve the same thing if Laien focused more thoroughly on the information he had acquired from the Core Rune, but where was the fun in that? They had spent the last two days in the saddles of their horses, so their bodies were itching for some movement anyhow.

“The first one was fire,” Laien mused on the way. “Apparently, apart from using elemental stones directly, each of the rooms is connected to a reservoir of corresponding natural energy. The runes on the rooms are designed to withstand the pressure from those specific elements, too. It’s nice, but it’s too bad that we won’t be able to cultivate close if we want to make use of those rooms,” he thought while recalling the relevant information in a leisure manner. From what he could tell, the only restriction on using those cultivation chambers was what one’s own body could bear, and he was very happy with that. After all, the last thing he wanted to experience was the training he looked forwards to being interrupted by the inherent limitations of this building complex.

“Second is water,” Yin mused, having just slowed down for a second to slide his hand against the stone-like object on one of the pedestals they were passing. “Then lightning… light, darkness, earth, and finally wind. There doesn’t seem to be any pattern with them.” Yin continued to list the elements out during their jog. He had half-expected the seven-point formation to somehow reinforce itself based on the elements each of the rooms used, but either he was too ignorant to recognize the method used or, what was more likely as far as he was concerned, there was no method at all.

“Same here,” Laien thought as the two of them started heading to the stairs leading aboveground. “I saw some information on self-reinforcing formations in Flora’s books, but that’s supposedly the high-level stuff. When put into such a huge scale like here, I doubt anyone below the level of a Rune Grandmaster would be able to set it up,” he mused. Then, soon afterwards, he gave the floor below the stairs a brief look. Apparently, the ‘door’ leading to the Training Quarters was hidden right there, using the same mechanism the entrance in the villa operated with.

That being said, sightseeing could wait for later. They still had five days until they would have to start fighting with the Earth Quarters Students, so it wasn’t like they lacked time. They would rest for at least three full days as they had originally intended, doing whatever they felt like doing at the moment, then they would put their mind to consolidating their foundations. As for those cultivation chambers and the Training Quarters of Academy City, those things could wait for their turn.

A moment later, the two of them found their way to the area where guest rooms were located. Thanks to a quick aura sweep, they found out where the three men were waiting for them, and without second-guessing themselves, they entered the room. What startled the two of them, however, was that contrary to how bitter and downtrodden Sebastian had looked when they parted ways ten minutes ago, he now appeared to be all smiles and laughter as he downed another cup of what seemed to be expensive liqueur. Moreover, the dishevelled, brown-haired Rector livened up further the instant he saw the two of them and began urging them to come over.

“I swear, these two fools!” Sebastian exclaimed, holding the cup with liqueur in one hand and gesticulating in an exaggerated manner with the other. “They should have immediately told me that you’d be competing with my Earth Quarter’s Students for your Heaven’s Order seats! Had I known I wouldn’t have to explain to my students why two newcomers were pushed into Heaven’s Quarters without any rhyme or reason, I wouldn’t have been so grumpy!” he declared with a big smile and gulped down the remaining half a cup of alcohol. Then, while Laien and Yin were still a bit confounded by his extreme change in attitude, he filled his cup back up and went on rambling.

“More importantly, when I heard that stuck-up bas-… Ekhm. I mean, when I heard Casimir’s evaluation of you two I was surprised enough, but to think we’re in for a full-blown alliance with the Ruishi Federation and Makarash! Can you imagine it? The young generations from all of those countries learning and competing in the same environment? Just think of how far those youngsters will be pushed thanks to that! Ha! If it means that you two will help out to pull this alliance through, then you can feel free to tell me to polish your boots! What’s a little concession here and there? I wouldn’t complain even if you asked me to share my inheritance with you, so what’s one or two of Heaven’s Order Students in comparison? Right, right! Come and sit down with us already! Do you two drink? What’s your favourite alcohol? And food? Just say a word, I’ll have it all prepared!”

As Sebastian rambled on shamelessly, Azuresky couldn’t help but cover his own face with the palm of his hand. “That’s not how negotiations work,” he muttered but did nothing to stop Sebastian. He was well aware that the only thing he would achieve by disagreeing with this crazed southerner was an entirely fruitless argument, followed by further exaggeration of Sebastian’s promises towards Laien and Yin. As much as he wanted to slam that fool in the head and tell him that him being so overly enthusiastic about the Three-Way Alliance was a huge detriment to their Holy Union at the negotiation table, he had accepted him with all the pros and cons of his character in mind.

All in all, while Sebastian was a terrible official when it came to aspects such as paperwork and organization, he made up for it with his ability to deal with people of all kinds. Without him mediating the countless issues and arguments between the lecturers and students, Academy City wouldn’t be nearly as peaceful as it was currently. That foolish man seemed to have a great eye for people, too, what resulted in many otherwise unimpressive youths suddenly revealing their talents thanks to his advice and encouragement. Similarly, those Sebastian deemed as troublemakers were either put to good use in tempering the diamonds in rough amongst the rest of the students, reformed, or expelled. Thanks to that and thanks to Sebastian strictly upholding the rules of Academy City and allowing for an intense but fair competition, the first results had already started showing.

“Cherry wine for me then,” Laien replied to Sebastian’s question with a grin on his face, having regained his usual cool. “As for food, any meal oriented around high-quality meat with lots of sauce will do. Well-done if possible,” he added, glad that Sebastian was offering to take care of their meals. He wouldn’t mind going to the local restaurant to fill himself every day, but if the Rector was offering himself, or rather his interspatial ring, up on a platter, then who was he to refuse?

“Grape wine for me,” Yin said with a laugh, thinking back to how he and Laien had exchanged their favourite types of fruit wines back in the Ruishi Federation. “As for food, I’d prefer something lighter. Some medium-rare meat would be nice, but mostly good vegetables and fruit,” he requested and nodded towards Sebastian. Alas, at the same time, he couldn’t prevent the corners of his lips from constantly edging upward into a wry smile. Elder Samuel had learned the hard way that feeding the two of them wasn’t a cheap business. Similarly, he hadn’t failed to notice that Azuresky and Emeric had suffered a bit at their hands, or rather their mouths, too, as they had eaten through their high-quality rations. This time, it looked like Sebastian would play the scapegoat to their stomachs… and while he felt a little bit bad for him, he would never refuse free tasty food when offered.

“Of course, of course,” Sebastian nodded repeatedly. “Are you fine with the standard 2 meals per day? Early breakfast and late dinner is the standard, but we can adjust if you prefer,” he said, appearing to be all smiles. Most of the costs of providing for Heaven’s Order Students came from the pockets of the Holy Union anyhow, so why in the world would he limit those two in any way? If they told him they wanted to eat the best possible food six times a day, he would agree to meet their demands without hesitation!

“Hm.” Laien thought for a bit. For as long as he was here alone with Yin, two meals a day would be more than enough. However, once Arslan, Raphael, and Mikaela came over, they would likely start taking breaks in the middle of the day, too. “Some afternoon snacks would be great, but that’s for later when our friends come over. For now, two meals will be enough, though I wouldn’t complain if we got some snacks delivered with the breakfasts for the time being. It would be great if both breakfasts and dinners were at eight, one in the morning one in the evening. Can it be done?” he inquired without holding himself back at all. As far as he was concerned, if someone ended up not getting what he wanted because he was too embarrassed to speak clearly when an opportunity presented itself, then that person was too self-conscious for their own good.

“Easily done,” Sebastian said with a smile. “Would you rather the food be delivered here or do you want to eat in the Academy Restaurant in the Training Quarters? Heaven’s Order Students have their own private rooms there, so it’s up to you if and how much you want to socialize with our students,” he mentioned, hoping that Laien and Yin would light the competitive spirits of the best of their students to the highest possible degree. Of course, there was the matter of the information ban which Azuresky and Emeric mentioned, but he was of the mind that if it was impossible to hide completely, then it was better to hide in plain sight. This way, some of the ‘mystery’ of the story would be gone and their students would feel less tempted to break the Academy’s gag order.

“For now, here,” Laien responded casually. “If we’ll be planning to eat in that restaurant, we will let the guys there know in advance,” he added and thus received an appreciative nod from Sebastian. He was about to shift his attention to Azuresky and Emeric, but then two bottles of very obviously expensive wine were brought out onto the table by Sebastian, naturally alongside two glass cups.

A moment later, Laien and Yin gladly received the cups filled with cherry wine and grape wine. They sniffed their drinks, then took small sips, and finally took a few larger gulps. Satisfied with the fruity taste accompanied by the slightly burning feeling in their mouths and throats, they both smiled happily. Just to be sure, they took a look at Sebastian, checking if he didn’t want to say anything else. The brown-haired man, however, apart from being in a great mood, seemed to have said all he wanted. He appeared relaxed and wasn’t even trying to open his mouth, waiting for the conversation between the two Kings and the two boys to progress while he enjoyed his liqueur.

“This absolute fool,” Azuresky muttered, then sighed bitterly. It was supposed to be Sebastian who explained the rules of the fights with Earth Quarters Students and if necessary, worked out the details with Laien and Yin. However, the man had gotten himself into such a good mood that he had all but forgotten about his responsibilities. “I mentioned that we’ll need you two for the second half of the talk, but there aren’t that many things to discuss,” Azuresky began saying on his own, seeing as he couldn’t expect Sebastian to bring the subject onto the appropriate tracks.

“In fact, there are only two,” Azuresky continued. “The first one relates to the duels you proposed. Since you’re Heaven’s Order Students, you’re allowed to choose the place of the duels. It can be on the plains or in the forests outside the city, it can be within the large training rooms within your mansion, or it can be within Training Quarters. For fairness’s sake, you won’t be allowed to choose an element-empowered environment, but choosing a water-themed or lightning-themed battleground is perfectly within the limits of what you can do,” he explained patiently. Although such details were also available within Academy City’s rulebook, which he intended to give to those two in a bit, he felt that the important matters should be mentioned by him beforehand. At least, if it was him in Laien’s or Yin’s shoes, he would have much preferred if someone told him the crucial stuff outright.

“Hm,” Laien tilted his head, considering which option he would prefer. Going outside the city would be too bothersome every time while going to the Training Quarters would expose them to too much attention, which he wanted to avoid for the time being. However, having others come over to their mansion had its demerits, too. “If we wanted to fight in our training space, will the judges and our opponents be coming over from below, from the Training Quarters?” he inquired. Thankfully, Azuresky nodded in confirmation right afterwards, so this issue was dealt with.

“Here it is, then,” Laien said with a smile. “What’s the other thing we have to talk about?” he asked, mostly to move the conversation onward.

“Your training environment,” Azuresky answered vaguely, then proceeded to explain. “Setting our deal with the duels aside, you will receive the standard things which any Heaven’s Oder Disciple can enjoy. I doubt you guys need any martial arts or cultivation manuals, so I intend to exchange their potential value to the other benefits. That should be fine with you?” he asked midway, then smiled once Laien and Yin both nodded at him without asking any needless questions. “Mm, I think you guys want down to take a look at the training area of your mansions. Have you seen the cultivation chambers?” he probed, wanting to know how much he would have to explain. To his satisfaction, the boys answered him with a simple ‘yes’, so he could skip straight to the heart of the matter.

“As Heaven’s Oder Students, you’re entitled to unlimited usage of the elemental energy channels. You can use them for cultivation or to refine items if you’re capable, but we do ask you not to waste the elemental energy pointlessly since it’s very precious. Since you already took a look at the cultivation chambers, I won’t say much. After all, the appropriate ways to use them should be clear to you if you’ve connected your mind with one of the Runic Stones. What’s slightly more problematic is using elemental stones to supplement the effects of the cultivation chambers. While I doubt the maximum pressure from energy channels will pose any danger to you, I will remind you that if you release too much elemental energy from the elemental stones and fail to resist it, then end up losing consciousness without activating the siphoning mechanism, there will be no one to save you.”

“On that topic,” Azuresky raised his voice a bit, his tone also changing to a harsher one as his eyes moved towards Sebastian. “If you would mind stopping your daydreaming for a minute, please give each of them two years’ worth of elemental stones quota. Just this once, do use those without restriction seals so that they can be taken outside of the Academy’s vicinity,” he requested of that damned carefree man and added an explanation about what restriction seals were for Laien’s and Yin’s sake.

“Water and lighting, yeah?” Sebastian asked merrily, acting as if he didn’t see the way Azuresky was looking at him. If Laien and Yin preferred, since they were getting restriction-free elemental stones, then he was fine with giving them whichever element they wished for. Of course, for light and darkness, the number of elemental stones would be a quarter of what it would have been otherwise, but that was beside the point. Still, since the boys gave him a nod, he didn’t need to waste his brain cells on thinking about those pointless things and could take out the elemental stones.

“Twenty-four top-grade water elemental stones and twenty-four top-grade lightning elemental stones. Add to that two hundred and eighty-eight high-grade water elemental stones and the same number of high-grade lightning elemental stones. Please confirm the numbers.”

Feeling chills at the numbers which Sebastian mentioned, Laien and Yin didn’t immediately reach out for the interspatial rings that had been placed before them, on the table. So many top-grade and high-grade elemental stones! Where did the Holy Union acquire so many of them that they could afford to squander them for the sake of students in Academy City? Just one high-rank elemental stone, if exploded at close range, was more than enough to kill a fairly strong martial master of the first rank! A top-grade one could kill a martial master of the third rank or seriously injure a martial master of the fourth rank! Even Elder Samuel from the immensely wealthy Ruishi Federation hadn’t taken out elemental stones in the little bet for benefits they had, so just thinking about what the numbers given to them implied about the foundations of the Holy Union gave them shivers.

Still somewhat lightheaded, Laien picked up the interspatial ring in front of him and quickly bound it to himself with his spiritual energy. He then proceeded to inspect its contents… and had to display the firmness of his mentality to the extreme in order to keep his expression from changing abruptly. Next to him, Yin similarly had to work hard to prevent his eyes from opening wide. No matter how the two of them looked at it, what Laien’s interspatial ring contained wasn’t what Sebastian spoke of! In fact, there was one pile of water elemental stones which fit what had come out of the Rector’s mouth, but next to it was a decently-sized hill of those same water elemental stones!

The only difference between the elemental stones in the pile and in the hill was that the latter ones appeared to have a small set of runes melted into their outermost surface. In other words, the elemental stones from the hill-sized pile were the ones with restriction seals and they couldn’t be taken out from Academy City and its rough vicinity. According to what Laien could tell, if someone did try to carry them away without knowing that, then those runes would trigger the elemental stones to explode. And, since interspatial rings couldn’t contain active masses of energy, all those stones would be expelled from within and the next instant, they would send whoever was foolish enough to try to steal them and everyone near that person into the afterlife.

Just to confirm, Yin cautiously inspected the interspatial ring he was given and as the two of them expected, he found that its contents were equally numerous, but with lightning elemental stones instead of water-element ones. Needless to say, if they had been shocked by the financial means of the Holy Union before, now they had gone past the shock and started growing suspicious. It should be impossible for so many elemental stones to be freely given away, even if Sebastian wanted to court favour with them very badly. So, did it mean that the Holy Union found a way to artificially manufacture elemental stones? If so, then it was a ground-breaking piece of news!